64 ALDERMANIC SEAL. 



yet of confidence in its mother's power of 

 protecting it, as it swam along nnder lier 

 wing; and the old cow's face showing suck 

 reckless defiance for all that we could do 

 to herself, and yet such terrible anxiety as 

 to the safety of her calf ! 



This plan of getting hold of a junger 

 and making him grunt to attract the others, 

 is a well known " dodge " amongst the 

 hunters; and although it was not reivarded 

 on this occasion, I have several times seen 

 it meet with the full measure of success due 

 to its humanity and ingenuity. 



I opened the stomach of a seal of alder- 

 manic proportions, wlio looked as if he had 

 lately been attending a civic feast, and found 

 in it, not turtle, but about a bushel of beau- 

 tiful pra^vns, evidently just swallowed, and 

 so fresh that we might have re-eaten them 

 ourselves, but for an unworthy prejudice. 

 How animal life must swarm in these cold 

 seas to maintain such a multitude of vora- 

 cious animals ! The keeper of the " Talk- 

 ing Seal" in London told me that they 

 " gave her fifty pounds of fish, a day, and that 

 she would eat one bundred pounds if she could 

 get it ; " so we can form some idea of what the 



